All posts tagged: closer

Batteries that absorb carbon emissions move a step closer to reality – new study

Published by skeptic

[ad_1] What if there were a battery that could release energy while trapping carbon dioxide? This isn’t science fiction; it’s the promise of lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO₂) batteries, which are currently a hot research topic. Lithium-carbon dioxide (Li-CO₂) batteries could be a two-in-one solution to the current problems of storing renewable energy and taking carbon emissions out of the air. They absorb carbon dioxide and convert it into a white powder called lithium carbonate while discharging energy. These batteries could have profound implications for cutting emissions from vehicles and industry – and might even enable long-duration missions on Mars, where the atmosphere is 95% CO₂. To make these batteries commercially viable, researchers have mainly been wrestling with problems related to recharging them. Now, our team at the University of Surrey has come up with a promising way forward. So how close are these “CO₂-breathing” batteries to becoming a practical reality? Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news …

Housework robots are a step closer as they learn to work in any home

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[ad_1] Robots equipped with the π0.5 AI model were tested in homes they had never seen before Physical Intelligence An AI enabling robots to do chores like making the bed or cleaning up spills in homes it has never seen before could allow many more robots to become generally useful, its creators say. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have improved robots’ ability to carry out spoken requests. However, most robots work well only in environments in which they have been trained; their performance quality sharply falls when confronted with new and unfamiliar spaces. [ad_2] Source link

Curing Loneliness: How Humanism Can Bring Us Closer Together

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[ad_1] Fish Stark is the Executive Director of the American Humanist Association. This article is adapted from his remarks at the First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis. “The most daring thing is to create stable communities in which the terrible disease of loneliness can be cured.”—Kurt Vonnegut AS THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the American Humanist Association, I find myself in the thrilling and challenging position of having to represent humanists and what they believe. I say challenging because the beliefs of a group that prides itself on free-thinking are not easily summarized. There’s the old joke “two Jews, three opinions,” and our version of that is “two humanists, four and a half opinions and an epistemological debate on the nature of opinion to boot.” I’ve tried saying that “if you believe in the Golden Rule but don’t really believe in God, you’re a humanist.” That we believe that what makes people special, important, worth fighting for, is not an immortal soul or intelligently designed body—but consciousness. Our capability to think independently, to imagine better futures for …

AI-controlled fighter jets may be closer than we think — and would change the face of warfare

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[ad_1] Could we be on the verge of an era where fighter jets take flight without pilots – and are controlled by artificial intelligence (AI)? US R Adm Michael Donnelly recently said that an upcoming combat jet could be the navy’s last one with a pilot in the cockpit. That marks a striking, if not entirely surprising, shift in thinking about the future of aerial warfare. The US Navy is not alone. Other programmes to develop next generation fighter jets are also touting uncrewed options as a distinct possibility. However, we have been here before. Senior leaders in the US Navy said they believed the last crewed fighter jet had been procured in 2015. As far back as 1957, premature obituaries were being written for the fighter pilot era. So is there anything different now? The ability of a fighter jet to manoeuvre, accelerate, and maintain high speeds, crucial for air combat, is called kinematic performance. Estimates are as high as 80% on how much pilots reduce kinematic performance. Though this figure may be disputed, …

Isle of Man closer to passing historic assisted dying law

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[ad_1] The Isle of Man’s assisted dying bill has cleared a major hurdle and is set to become the first part of the UK and Crown dependencies to have an assisted dying law. Today the House of Keys, the lower chamber, considered amendments from the Tynwald’s upper chamber, the Legislative Council, and sent the Bill back to the upper chamber to be considered on 11 March. Humanists UK, which has long worked to help pass this law, welcomes this news and urges legislators to vote in support of the Bill when it returns for consideration. While the majority of amendments were agreed upon, the House of Keys voted against a small number of amendments to the Bill. That means that the Bill did not complete its passage today. The Legislative Council must now look at these amendments again on 11 March, where if approved it will be sent for Royal Assent. In order to access assisted dying under the proposed scheme, a patient must: Be aged 18 or over Have a terminal illness that will …

AI aluminium casting revolution a step closer after world-first designs unveiled

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[ad_1] World-first designs have shown how aluminium components used for various modes of transport can be made almost 50 per cent lighter without compromising their strength. Coventry-based casting firm Sarginsons Industries has released designs which have taken an existing cast automotive subframe that was optimised for weight in 2022 being reduced from 28kg to 15kg. The designs have been made from new AI-driven software that is under development to demonstrate that automotive aluminium parts can have their mass reduced without weakening mechanical integrity. The design shows where excess aluminium has been removed – emphasising the software’s ability to simulate the varying mechanical properties of a part to put the right material in the right place. Sarginsons is aiming to produce the first physical casting using this technology by the summer.  The designs are the early results of the Performance Integrated Vehicle Optimisation Technology project (PIVOT), which Sarginsons is leading with its partners after receiving a £6 million matched grant from the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Innovate UK. Gavin Shipley, Technical Director at Sarginsons, said: “The …

We’re getting closer to having practical quantum computers – here’s what they will be used for

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[ad_1] In 1981, American physicist and Nobel Laureate, Richard Feynman, gave a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) near Boston, in which he outlined a revolutionary idea. Feynman suggested that the strange physics of quantum mechanics could be used to perform calculations. The field of quantum computing was born. In the 40-plus years since, it has become an intensive area of research in computer science. Despite years of frantic development, physicists have not yet built practical quantum computers that are well suited for everyday use and normal conditions (for example, many quantum computers operate at very low temperatures). Questions and uncertainties still remain about the best ways to reach this milestone. What exactly is quantum computing, and how close are we to seeing them enter wide use? Let’s first look at classical computing, the type of computing we rely on today, like the laptop I am using to write this piece. Classical computers process information using combinations of “bits”, their smallest units of data. These bits have values of either 0 or 1. …

Trump’s White House return is already pushing Europe and the UK closer together

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[ad_1]  British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves talks to the media at the EU Council headquarter on Dec. 9, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium.  Thierry Monasse | Getty Images News | Getty Images BRUSSELS, Belgium ꟷ President-elect Donald Trump has not yet re-entered the White House, but the U.K. and neighboring European Union are already working closer together to protect themselves against potential trade and defense confrontations with the incoming U.S. leader. U.K. Chancellor Rachel Reeves travelled to Brussels on Monday to convene with her EU counterparts in the first such encounter since Britain left the European Union in 2020. Her host, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, said he hoped this would be the first of “many” meetings. “There was a broadly shared sense that, in a world of turmoil, we continue to have shared interests and values,” one EU official, who did not want to be named due to the delicate nature of the conversations, told CNBC about the meeting with the U.K.’s chancellor. The same official added that these shared values concern Ukraine, China …

Scientists Are One Step Closer to Demystifying ‘Aphantasia’

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[ad_1] This article was originally published by Quanta Magazine. Two years ago, Sarah Shomstein realized she didn’t have a mind’s eye. The vision scientist was sitting in a seminar room, listening to a scientific talk, when the presenter asked the audience to imagine an apple. Shomstein closed her eyes and did so. Then, the presenter asked the crowd to open their eyes and rate how vividly they saw the apple in their mind. Saw the apple? Shomstein was confused. She didn’t actually see an apple. She could think about an apple: its taste, its shape, its color, the way light might hit it. But she didn’t see it. Behind her eyes, “it was completely black,” Shomstein recalled. And yet, “I imagined an apple.” Most of her colleagues reacted differently. They reported actually seeing an apple, some vividly and some faintly, floating like a hologram in front of them. In that moment, Shomstein, who’s spent years researching perception at George Washington University, realized she experienced the world differently from others. She is part of a subset …

Olympics Photo of the Day: One Step Closer to Gold

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[ad_1] Kadir Caliskan / United World Wrestling / Getty Kotaro Kiyooka of Japan celebrates winning against Tulga Tumur Ochir of Mongolia in the Olympic men’s freestyle 65-kg wrestling semifinal on August 10, 2024, in Paris. Kiyooka advances to the gold-medal match on August 11, against Iran’s Rahman Amouzadkhalili. Previously: August 9: Sha’Carri Richardson secures gold for Team USA August 8: British sport climber Molly Thompson-Smith hangs on by her fingertips August 7: Spain’s Maria Perez wins a gold medal August 6: Artistic swimmers from France show their other faces August 5: Simone Biles and Jordan Chiles bow down to Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade [ad_2] Source link